On September 24 2010 20:17 Scoop wrote:
I wouldn't want to be on my toes with everything I do so I don't get executed for doing something that's against some silly communist party's law.

You know that from experience from Stalinist Leninist communism or something?

Cus it sounds fucking retarded otherwise. I mean, how do they do business if it's like that?

TheImmortal

Hong Kong84 Posts

September 24 2010 11:27 GMT

#83

this is really not a choice. since you're going there to study and not to play and visit and stuff, i'd assume it's for your future career. japan is one of the worst economies in asia right now. and barely anyone trades with japan anymore. japanese was very important in 1980's, but now, really only good if you like japanese hentai or anime.

china on the other hand might give you the career of your life. but, as you come from norway, china might be very difficult for you to live in. it's just so different. the culture, manners, the environment...you really need to be prepared for such a change, but if you are, china is much better than japan in every way i can think of.

Sashimi

58 Posts

September 24 2010 11:41 GMT

#84

Dude, you are doing this for your future career, why are you listening to people who are recommending solely for the purpose of travelling? If are you travelling, either nation is good many different things to see. If you are doing it for a future career, China hands down, PERIOD. Whether hot, dirty, and all other shit won't make any difference because you have to make some sacrifice to achieve your goal, you are not there for leisure purposes.

.risingdragoon

United States3021 Posts

September 24 2010 11:54 GMT

#85

In terms of learning language it's obvious which is more useful. And it ain't Japanese.

I'd love to learn some more exotic language choices like German or Russian or whatever, but wtf for? Not nuff people speak it. That's why it's Spanish I chose, cus lotta Latins in the US and there's the whole Latin and South America.

Range my friend, gotta have range.

Ruien

China17 Posts

September 24 2010 12:12 GMT

#86

As a guy who came from the USA to study in China in 2007, ended up staying, and later marrying a Chinese girl and being fully accepted into their family, I think I have some pretty good insight on the matter. China is awesome; and Beijing specifically is excellent for language study (I studied in Renmin University -- avoid the Beijing Foreign Language University -- and then joined a bunch of clubs when my Chinese was decent). I made a bunch of friends and it never stopped being awesome.

There's not much more to it than that; I would never go back and choose Japan.

ZERG_RUSSIAN

10417 Posts

September 24 2010 12:28 GMT

#87

On September 24 2010 20:21 pred470r wrote:
China has ninjas and Japan has samurais so just pick the one you like more.

What the hell are you talking about, those are both from Japan.

lostshard

United States95 Posts

September 24 2010 12:34 GMT

#88

On September 24 2010 20:21 pred470r wrote:
China has ninjas and Japan has samurais so just pick the one you like more.

Ninjas and samurais both originated out of Japan.

Shaolin monk would be something out of China.

As for the OP's question. Try not to look at all the negative experiences that were told 3rd hand. There will always be stupid people in every place... so one experience does not constitute the whole. If I were to choose my food preference would be my guide

piny

United States19 Posts

September 24 2010 12:37 GMT

#89

mandarin since its used more, but if u like japan alot more, ur better off choosing that

accela

Greece314 Posts

September 24 2010 12:57 GMT

#90

japan all the way

NSFW -> http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2010/07/17/university-life-chinese-style/

mrscheng

Sweden658 Posts

September 24 2010 13:11 GMT

#91

sweden

madnessman

United States1581 Posts

September 24 2010 13:47 GMT

#92

My family is moving from Japan to China so China!

dogen

Belgium108 Posts

September 24 2010 14:03 GMT

#93

Studying Chinese will be a LOT harder for you since it is a multi tonal voice. Japanese is not and is at least in that aspect more like a western language. On the other hand is Chinese grammar probably a lot easier to grasp but that does not outweigh the difficulty of getting used to the tonality.

Of course, it is possible to learn either of the languages and this will depend mostly on your own discipline and practice, so I would not leave it to the language issue to decide where to go. You should decide on your own cultural preference. Hell, you can even pick the prettiest language to your taste (which is in my opinion Japanese bu a large margin).

SgCloud

Germany23 Posts

September 24 2010 14:14 GMT

#94

I plan on living in an asian country once I have made enough preparations/money in order to live in one. Me, being a very politically interested liberal-minded person however can not really approve of Chinas authoritarian political system and would much rather prefer Japan or Taiwan to it. That being said, I'm also not really a person who gets motivated a lot by money ( I rarely ever spend a lot of money on things other than basic ones) unless I really am in a financial crisis, so living in a country that is less economically successful would probably be fine for me, as long as the political and cultural atmosphere is liberally minded.

Piy

Scotland3152 Posts

September 24 2010 14:17 GMT

#95

Having Mandarin is an incredibly useful thing to have in todays world. Japan is pretty awesome though, everyone I've spoken too that holidayed there said it was amazing.

Yurie

12193 Posts

September 24 2010 14:29 GMT

#96

Why not do Korea and watch e-sports on TV?

More seriously though, flip a coin if you have a this hard time deciding.

youlijp

Brazil112 Posts

September 24 2010 14:35 GMT

#97

I've lived in Japan for 5 and a half years (till June this year), and with my own experience, I think you'd have a better time in China. Beijing, not so much (I've been to several cities in China). Nice cities in China are Guangzhou or Tianjin. I've been to Taiyuan too, and I liked it pretty much. The problem in Japan is that people are not so friendly. You can't crack a joke very well even with close friends. Japanese people are rather serious, responsible and concerned about their image. As for China, people were very friendly to me. And I've been there only twice.

But for me, I wouldn't like to live in China either, because of issues like internet lag and websites restrictions (youtube, for instance, can't be accessed in china). I wouldn't care much about politics issues, unless they start interfering in my personal life. And Internet websites, like youtube, that I'm always visiting, being prohibited is kind of upsetting.

REDBLUEGREEN

Germany1904 Posts

September 24 2010 14:58 GMT

#98

China is dirty.
Besides can you really phone your gf and have phone sex with her or brag to your friends how you are about to nail some chick, when you always have some creepy chinese government official who is wanking to your stories in the back of your head?
I'd say go to Taiwan if you want to learn mandarin rather than japanese. I think spoken mandarin is the same in China and Taiwan it's just written differently. Not sure about that though.

If you want to spend 2 years or more in one of those countries take a look at the Human Development Index:
Japan 10th
Hong Kong 24th (I guess learning Mandarin wouldn't be hard there although it's not the official language)
Taiwan 25th
China 92nd

Moreover if you fail to communicate in your new language you can always fall back to English in Taiwan and Hong Kong since a lot of people speak it there.

TechDeft

United States211 Posts

September 24 2010 15:06 GMT

#99

China sucks.

User has been warned for this post.

User was temp banned for this post.

TanGeng

Sanya12364 Posts

September 24 2010 15:07 GMT

#100

Go to China. It doesn't matter where you go if you just stay inside the biggest cities. Shanghai and Beijing are about the same. They're bustling metropolitan cities and very fun places, and there's plenty of places where you can speak English. The only problem is that these cities are somewhat chaotic, but that has its own excitements.

Hong Kong and Taiwan are more mature on the English and more orderly.

Japan is ever more so.

Now if you want to stray of the beaten path for foreigners, that's an entirely different matter.